The Hobbit Enigma: Homo floresiensis
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Posted:Nov 4, 2008 5:01 am
Last Updated:May 21, 2024 9:26 pm
6333 Views
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The evolution of humans is an amazing process. This documentary (extract of media release below) questions so many tenets of the academic (archeology and many related fields) world of evolution. But why I found it more interesting was because of stories I have heard from Aboriginal people in north central Australia. Stories of the little hairy people that could do good or bad, steal something or leave something. Are these people of myths? So often there is reality in myths, maybe not the magical parts, but the existence of the object of the myth. I plan to pursue conversations with my brother (Aboriginal way) from down that way.
I thought this was a good distraction from the election and the economic turmoil going on in the world...and of course my own randomly affected life which sometimes leads to happiness and other times not 
The Hobbit Enigma: Homo floresiensis
If there was a case where fact is stranger than fiction, this is it.
Richard Dawkins, evolutionary biologist
It was hailed as one of the most exceptional fossil discoveries in decades, so unexpected that it threatened to overturn accepted notions of human origins and posed questions that reach far beyond science itself. Not surprisingly it sent shock waves around the world that are still reverberating.
The Hobbit Enigma takes us from the moment of discovery of the hobbit-like creature on the Indonesian island of Flores in 2003, through the bitter scientific arguments that followed, to the current investigations which reveal the real implications of the discovery: The meter-tall fossil raised so many questions because she looked so primitive, but was only 12,000 years old. How could the hobbits have survived for so long and until so recently? Who were their ancestors? Could it be that early humans have originated in Asia rather than Africa?
Hominid evolution, it seems was not simply a linear march towards a bigger and bigger brain as was previously thought. The existence of Homo floresiensis challenges paleoanthropology's long-standing theory: that the genus Homo originated in Africa, and that an early type of Homo erectus equipped with a big brain and an advanced toolkit was the first human relative to leave Africa 1.8 million years ago.
The Flores find forces us to consider that the first human may not be African at all, but may have originated in Asia where its tiny ancestors survived for countless generations on an isolated island.
Written, directed and produced by Simon Nasht and Annamaria Talas for ABC Television in association with The Nature of Things.
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EXOSKELETON
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Posted:Oct 21, 2008 6:18 am
Last Updated:Jan 14, 2009 3:34 am
6272 Views
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my exoskeleton covers me
and the madness
my exoskeleton blocks you
and the sadness
i search inner roads
and the highways
i lose inner ability
and the valleys
my exoskeleton covers me
and the nascent dawn
my exoskelton braces you
and the new day
a shell is just a cover
a dislocation fulfilled
a shell of beauty outside
a membership of all
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A kindred soul
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Posted:Jul 27, 2008 8:06 am
Last Updated:Jul 31, 2010 8:25 pm
6251 Views
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Delicate leaves are
Falling around us
Softly words are spoken
Landing beneath our world
Holding onto branches
One towards two
Staring at the balance
We start anew
Into our roots we
Pass another prayer
Talking to strangers
Wishing them well
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5
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hello to my friends
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Posted:Apr 30, 2008 6:16 am
Last Updated:Dec 30, 2018 9:50 pm
6444 Views
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This is to say hello to my friends who have stuck by my blog over the years or so I have been here. I have been taking a break from blog land as I felt I needed a break, plus I noticed there was a bit of blog wars going on which gave me the shits.
I was saddened to come back and notice that one of my fav blogs had gone - profile deleted. I pity I missed the message that she sent me, but ho hum and such as the comings and goings on Affairlook blogs (cya Sirens-nymph ). 
I won't be making so many blogs for a while, not only for the above mentioned reason, but because I am so busy at work and sit in front of a computer all day for my work, so I figured I needed a bit more variety in my life. I will come back from time to time. I miss you all and particularly miss my viewers blogs.
All the best and catch you around from time to time.
ciao
M
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War and peace
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Posted:Apr 23, 2008 7:16 am
Last Updated:Apr 24, 2019 10:25 pm
6310 Views
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Are war and peace opposites? War involves direct conflict of arms. Peace is more than just having no war. It involves communication and cooperation; the discussion of differences. This discussion will be difficult to every day chat ‒ it involves patience, resolve, good listening and understanding skills and honesty about what is good for the people they are representing. Negotiating countries livelihoods is not something to be taken lightly. It takes getting many different people to agree or at least accept a certain position. It needs absence of war and therefore peace is required before the discussion can take place and be successful. It does not mean however, that dialogue can not be had before peace is achieved. And this must be done...
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LIVING and GAMBLING
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Posted:Apr 12, 2008 6:10 am
Last Updated:Apr 24, 2019 10:26 pm
6521 Views
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Obviously not too many gamblers here on Affairlook. To be expected - to busy having sex rather than gambling  some more than others 
I am definitely not a gambler, but probabilities and numbers are part of my job as a statistician. I am also interested in gambling as it is part of my research. Why is it that people gamble? We live our lives as a calculated gamble. Playing off our wits to the external world around us. For some, extending it to a game is maybe not so different as to the world we live in...is it? How do new immigrants to a country feel, where they are living gambling on a day to day basis, with limited knowledge and understanding about the environment they are living in.
It would be easy in some ways to withdraw from the world and not participate in the living gamble. But generally humans do not do this. They knuckle down, reach out and continue...
If you have a gambling problem then talk to some one and keep talking...
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Gambling
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Posted:Apr 6, 2008 5:01 am
Last Updated:Apr 24, 2019 10:27 pm
6468 Views
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Do you take a bet? How many choices of our lives are bets? We subcounsciously calculate the probabilities, based on what we know. Do people understand the 50:50 bet? I come from it at the other end, I see the odds and don't bet! Above or below. I would love to hear from any gamblers out there about there stories.
cheers
M
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My first block
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Posted:Apr 3, 2008 6:06 am
Last Updated:Apr 24, 2019 10:27 pm
6551 Views
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I was not surprised to be blocked considering my recent post(s) on Ells49's blog...If I had membership I would have emailed him before public posting, as that was my first thought/instinct on reading that post...Such is the life of blogging. There are always parts of us that we are unwilling to give to blog land. Some of you know why I reacted to post [post 1337925]. I can understand what it means to meet a culture and not like parts of it. But ultimately we all do our best to carve out our lives amongst the going ons around us....
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Explanation, excuse or reason
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Posted:Apr 1, 2008 5:04 am
Last Updated:Apr 2, 2008 6:02 am
6375 Views
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First, what is an excuse?
excuse (noun): a defense of some offensive behavior or some failure to keep a promise etc.
So, usually making an excuse is associated with something viewed in a negative way. I see an excuse as a a false or insincere way of escaping the consequences of ones behaviour.
Second, what is a reason?
reason (noun): a fact that logically justifies some premise or conclusion
So, a reason is like a proven excuse, one that has passed the test of logic or "reason".
Lastly, what is an explanation?
explanation (noun): a statement that makes something comprehensible by describing the relevant structure or operation or circumstances etc.
So, the explanation follows the reason which follows (or not) the excuse. The explanation is to clarify and make sense of, to embed it within our immediate lives, to humanize it.
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Do you forgive or forget or do neither?
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Posted:Mar 28, 2008 9:49 am
Last Updated:Apr 10, 2008 9:42 am
6663 Views
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OK - this post is a rant. I admit it now, so read on with that in mind. It was prompted by a number of posts I and others have made over the last month, but in particular it was triggered by [post 1337925] which I found out of character of the poster and a particular comment from within.
I accept that some will find this uncomfortable, while others will find it interesting in the sense that it throws up BIG questions that us humans will have to deal with in the coming years, decades and likely centuries (though I hope for less)...
Something...a post and a comment really riled me tonight. It surprised me that this person posted something that seemed to be out of left field and a comment on the post. I already know that some will just right me off, but others will see what I am getting at and I hope that those that right me off take the time to think abouit what I say. So here it goes.
Humans have committed atrocities against each other for hundreds and thousands of years and more. Individuals, tribes, families and civilizations have been wiped out continuously thought time. People who are part of these wiped out civilizations have either been destroyed or have been integrated/assimilated into the conquering group. The most powerful has always won. Our current world we live in has had a single dominant force now for at minimum 60 years. Yes, I think you all know who it is. And has this brought stability having this particular power as the dominant force?
Let me lay out a scenario.
There is a land that was promised in a book that many people follow. A book that was written by humans (men) of a particular class and power and position within their society at the time of writing. Not surprisingly these people created such a book that was convincing (at the ignorant time it was written) and contained many beliefs that drew strength from the ignorance of the people who followed (due to a lack of education and the breakthrough that came about as a result of educating the masses) and also prophecised the continuation of its belief and the people and it also promised them a land. Not surprisingly, this book was the biggest selling book in history. It told people a rich mixture of stories. Some showed compassion and strength of individuals and others told of brutality and power. The book was revered amongst many people and those that expressed difference were silenced. Over time another book was written that contained a similar set of stories, fables, tenets, and contradictions. These contradictions matched human nature pretty well as with the previous book. There were times where people who followed both books lived in the same place and there were times they fought to the death with the aim of converting or silencing the other. One group had power through military and economic strength, while the other had power through holding to the keystone that help up the economic strength. As the power struggle built, individuals from each group read more and more of their books, making grandiose statements about how their book was the truth.
Back to the question. How will the usurped power react? Well that all depends on where you live. Things are going to change in the coming two decades and the Earth will have a new super power, one that far surpasses their predecessor. I am intrigued and still unsure of how the usurped will cope with their impending relegation. I particularly worry about how it will unfold in the middle east.
So this brings me back to the question, is it the chicken or the egg and whether the egg can hatch a new type of creature? Or does the power of the people believing in these two books simply subordinate the new creature?
But there is a twist and another scenario unfolded...
There was a bunch of people living geographically distant from the people who wrote these two books. They had their own bookS (deliberate capital). These books discussed ways of living with each other, compared with the other books that also discussed living, but in terms of competing, dividing, paying back, scaring through fear and making promises that could never be proved. It is the people who followed these multiple books that were gaining power and were to usurp the powers that wrote the two books that created a living dinosaur in a world of information and wires and buildings and computers. These people concentrated on the ways that the powers to be created who followed the other two books. They stayed focussed according to their own bookS. They laughed at the beliefs in an all powerful created. They culd not understand how such a belief system could exist and become so powerful. They had read and discovered the simplicity of gaining the upper hand, both through sheer numbers and through education.
So now this place we live has the two books, plus a multitude of more of which a different geographically separate people followed. Who is right? Who is wrong? Do the other books tell much more of a story or do they retell the same story of the other two? Are the books still believable since the growth of education through schools that don't follow any of the books?
We live on a planet hurtling through space and so many humans still follow books that condone what is now seen as atrocities, inhumane and sexist. What is to become of the believers of the two books? Will they retain the land that was promised to them by their powerful ancestors? Or will they be relegated and be integrated/assimilated into a growing in power civilization? If the latter is to occur, will it occur over years or millenia? Will it ever end or will it end all humanity as we know it?
The Earth is but a small part of the universe. Tiny, but not insignificant, because it has conscious life. One that makes choices based upon what they KNOW. Or do they continue to make decisions based on what they don't know, as in a world of superstition, unprovable pretenses, hunches, luck, the archaic ignorant past?
My last rant is WTF are people doing on this site if they believe the two books?
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What is in our nature?
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Posted:Mar 24, 2008 7:24 am
Last Updated:Apr 24, 2019 10:31 pm
6603 Views
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I took this from [post 1329944]
A scorpion and a frog meet on the bank of a stream and the
scorpion asks the frog to carry him across on its back. The
frog asks, "How do I know you won't sting me?" The scorpion
says, "Because if I do, I will die too."
The frog is satisfied, and they set out, but in midstream,
the scorpion stings the frog. The frog feels the onset of
paralysis and starts to sink, knowing they both will drown,
but has just enough time to gasp "Why?"
Replies the scorpion: "Its my nature..."
~Aesop Fable
Why the scorpion stung the frog, even after he made a verbal deal
It's in our nature or is it?
Very good explanation or not, but maybe for two different species. Thing is, humans are a single species, whether dark skinned, light skinned, open eyes or almond eyes, we are a single species. We have different beliefs and we are no more separate than the lorikeets (a type of parrot here in Oz) on the east, middle and west coast of the continent that don't mix because theya are separated. They are able to interbreed, though will often not due to differences in mating patterns or in the case of humans, cultural beliefs. But even then, humans still often interbreed whether through lust or love.
We are separated by oceans and mountains and culture. Our beliefs however, have enormous influence. How different are the genders? We both feel similar feelings, otherwise we wouldn't be together for such long periods of time. And gay people have the same feelings and are generally better accepted now than in the last few decades. In fact, the Christian church barely even bothers piping up about it in public these days. And just as we hear Muslims say there is no homosexuality in their countries, we heard the Catholic church say there was no pedophilia in their ranks.
Some leaders would like to make "us and them" divides, whether religious or other figures of power in society. Usually such outbursts are a result of either ignorance, power mongering or politics (which includes power mongering).
So, are humans ready to have a new enlightenment and find out more about their own species by moving away from religion? Will we replace archaic belief systems and their tenets and dogma with a rational approach to the issues that we face?
I hope so
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An Aphorism on faith
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Posted:Mar 24, 2008 6:41 am
Last Updated:Jan 21, 2009 1:45 pm
6607 Views
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Clever people in the public eye will reveal their true faith in time; average people will earlier.
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To link to this blog (Docofall007) use [blog Docofall007] in your messages.
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